On May 25, 1991, Billboard premiered the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart. The criteria for this chart were albums that were more than 18 months old and had fallen below position 100 on the Billboard 200.[6] An album needed not have charted on the Billboard 200 at all to qualify for catalog status.

Starting with the issue dated December 5, 2009, however, the catalog limitations which removed albums over 18 months old, that have dropped below position 100 and have no currently-running single, from the Billboard 200 was lifted, turning the chart into an all-inclusive list of the 200 highest-selling albums in the country (essentially changing Top Comprehensive Albums into the Billboard 200). A new chart that keeps the previous criteria for the Billboard 200 (dubbed Top Current Albums) was also introduced in the same issue.[7]

Holiday albums

Billboard has adjusted its policies for Christmas[8] and holiday[8] albums several times. The albums were eligible for the main album charts until 1963, when a Christmas Albums list was created. Albums appearing here were not listed on the Top LPs chart. In 1974, this rule was reverted and holiday albums again appeared within the main list.

In 1983, the Christmas Albums chart was resurrected, but a title's appearance here did not disqualify it from appearing on the Top Pop Albums chart. In 1994 the chart was retitled Top Holiday Albums. As of 2009 the chart holds 50 positions and is run for several weeks during the end-of-calendar-year holiday season. Its current policy allows holiday albums to concurrently chart on the Top Holiday Albums list and the Billboard 200.

Incorporation of streaming data and track sales

Beginning with the December 13, 2014 issue, Billboard updated the methodology of its album chart again, changing from a "pure sales-based ranking" to one measuring "multi-metric consumption".[4] With this overhaul, the Billboard 200 includes on-demand streaming and digital track sales (as measured by Nielsen SoundScan) by way of a new algorithm, utilizing data from all of the major on-demand audio subscription services including Spotify, Beats Music, Google Play and Xbox Music. Under the new methodology, ten track sales or 1,500 song streams from an album are treated as equivalent to one purchase of the album. Billboard will continue to publish a pure album sales chart, called Top Album Sales, that maintains the traditional Billboard 200 methodology, based exclusively on SoundScan's sales data.[4]

Year-end charts

Billboard's "chart year" runs from the first week of December to the final week in November. This altered calendar allows for Billboard to calculate year-end charts and release them in time for its final print issue in the last week of December. Prior to Nielsen SoundScan, year-end charts were calculated by an inverse-point system based solely on an album's performance on the Billboard 200 (for example, an album would be given one point for a week spent at position 200, two points for a week spent at position 199... up to 200 points for each week spent at number one). Other factors including the total weeks on the chart and at its peak position were calculated into an album's year-end total.

After Billboard began obtaining sales information from Nielsen SoundScan, the year-end charts are now calculated by a very straightforward cumulative total of yearlong sales. This gives a more accurate picture of any given year's best-selling albums, as a title that hypothetically spent nine weeks at number one in March could possibly have sold fewer copies than one spending six weeks at number three in January. Interestingly, albums at the peak of their popularity at the time of the November/December chart-year cutoff many times end up ranked lower than one would expect on a year-end tally, yet are ranked on the following year's chart as well, as their cumulative points are split between the two chart-years.

Uses

The Billboard 200 can be helpful to radio stations as an indication of the types of music listeners are interested in hearing. Retailers can also find it useful as a way to determine which recordings should be given the most prominent display in a store. Other outlets, such as airline music services, also employ the Billboard charts to determine their programming.

All-Time Billboard 200 achievements (1963-2015)

In 2015, Billboard magazine compiled a ranking of the 100 best-performing albums on the chart over the 52 years, along with the best-performing artists.[9] Shown below are the top 10 albums and top 10 artists over the 52-year period of the Billboard 200, through October 2015. Also shown are the artists placing the most albums on the overall "all-time" top 100 album list.

McCartney also has the most top 10 albums, with 50. This includes 32 with The Beatles (referenced earlier in this article), 8 albums with the group Wings, 1 album credited to him and his first wife Linda McCartney, and 9 solo albums.[51]

As of 2008, Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon has been on the charts for over 1,630 weeks, or approximately 31 years. The album spent a record 936 weeks on the Billboard 200. The other weeks were spent on the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart. Its closest rival is Bob Marley's Legend, checking in at over 975 weeks (Billboard 200 and Top Pop Catalog Albums combined).

Tapestry by Carole King holds the record for most consecutive weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 for any one album by a female solo artist with 15 weeks.[52]

Forever Your Girl by Paula Abdul spent 64 consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 before hitting number one, making it the longest time for an album to reach the number-one spot, while the soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou took 63 weeks to reach number one in 2001 making it the longest run since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales.

In 2001, Britney Spears became the first female artist in the chart's history to have her first three albums debut at number one. She broke this record two years later with a fourth number-one debut.[60] With the number-one debut of her Circus album in 2008, Spears also became the youngest female artist in history to have five number-one albums.[61] She later beat the record when her 7th studio album, Femme Fatale debuted at number one on April, 2011.

The first UK solo artist to debut at number one with a debut album is Leona Lewis on April 26, 2008 with the album Spirit.[62] The first UK group to debut at number one with a debut album is One Direction on March 31, 2012 with the album Up All Night.[63]

Oldest male to debut at number one: Tony Bennett on October 8, 2011 (7004311120000000000♠85 years, 66 days old) with the album Duets II. He was born August 3, 1926. Later, he surpassed his own record when his collaborative album with Lady Gaga, Cheek to Cheek debuted at number one on October 11, 2014 (7004322110000000000♠88 years, 69 days old).

With 24 weeks at number one for her album 21, Adele holds the record for the longest time for a solo album by a female to remain at the top of the Billboard 200. This run was concurrent with her three number-one singles on the Hot 100. 21 also holds the record for the longest time for an album by a female solo artist to remain on the Billboard albums chart, with over six years.

As of December 18, 2013, Beyoncé became the only female artist to have her first 5 studio albums debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, following the release of her self-titled album Beyoncé.[70]

One Direction became the first group in history to debut at No. 1 with its first three albums when Midnight Memories debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 dated December 14, 2013. They later became the first group to debut at No. 1 with their first four albums when Four debuted atop the chart on November 26, 2014.[71]

Led Zeppelin hold the record for the longest gap between an album returning to the Top 10. Led Zeppelin first hit the Top 10 on the Billboard Top LP's chart for the week ending 17 May 1969 and returned 45 years and 35 days later at No.7, on the Billboard 200, for the week ending 21 June 2014.

On May 1, 2016, Beyoncé broke the record she previously set in 2013, by becoming the only female artist to have her first 6 studio albums debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, following the release of her sixth studio album Lemonade. Beyoncé also becomes the first and only artist in Billboard chart history to have all of her studio albums debut at No. 1, breaking a tied record with DMX.

On May 22, 2016, Coloring Book by Chance the Rapper became the first streaming-only album to chart on the Billboard 200, debuting at No. 8, with the album being streamed 57.3 million times in its first week, which was equivalent to 38,000 units sold.[72]

On March 18, 2017, Future made history by achieving back-to-back No. 1 album debuts in successive weeks with Future and HNDRXX for the first time in the chart's history.[50]

^Gael Fashingbauer Cooper (June 15, 2014). Casey Kasem's 'American Top 40' reached for the starsArchived 2014-06-15 at the Wayback Machine.. NBC News. Retrieved June 15, 2014. "An unparalleled storyteller, Kasem loved to drop a teasing question about a song or a band, then cut to commercial, making his trivia so tantalizing that listeners just had to stay tuned to find out the answer. (...) Who had the most No. 1 albums without a Top 40 single? (Comic and mood-music expert Jackie Gleason, at least at the time.)"